Roundtable: New Trade Opportunities

Cecilia Malmström

European Commission

EU Commissioner for Trade

Marietje Schaake

European Parliament

Member

Luisa Santos

BusinessEurope

Director for International Relations

Phillippe Lamberts

European Parliament

Member

Amela Hubic

European Commission

Senior Economic Advisor at EPSC

Joanna Sopinska

Moderator

Trade Reporter, MLex Market Insight

The EU has a long history of building trade relationships with countries and has bilateral agreements with a long list of countries. However, one of the biggest and latest undertakings, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the US, is only slowly progressing, so the EU might want to venture out and attract new partners. The question is which countries could and should the EU engage with. Its traditional approach on multilateralism guided by its core values, such as respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law, might render it difficult to engage in bilateral agreements with certain countries, as these sometimes see these values as interfering with their national sovereignty. How can the EU ensure that globalization works for all?